http://www.writersperspective.com On Writers, For Writers, About Writers Sun, 09 Oct 2005 14:13:25 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en PHP doesn't spring to mind when thinking about processing XML data, but PHP is a better solution than you might think. Since PHP is used to develop websites, which use HTML a standard based on the principles of XML, PHP is a sensible choice. PHP also includes powerful tools for ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=22 Getting users to try Linux is only half the battle. The other half is showing them what they can achieve when using it. Linux Made Easy by Rickford Grant uses a task based approach to show how you can use Linux to perform your daily tasks; email, browsing, letter writing, ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=21 Linux Made Easy by Rickford Grant is a companion to his original Linux for Non-geeks. Where the two differ is that this book is about how easy Linux can be for performing a myriad of tasks using a simple, skill-based approach. In this book, Rickford describes how to use Linux ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=19 Apache has been a stalwart of the Internet for some time. Not only is it well known as a web serving platform, but it also forms a key part of the LAMP (Linux-Apache-MySQL-Perl/Python/PHP) and is one of the best known open source projects. Getting an Apache installation right though can ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=20 Note: This review was originally published in Free Software Magazine If you use a free software operating system or environment, chances are one of your key interfaces will be through some kind of shell. Most people assume the bulk of the power of shells comes from the commands available within them, ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=18 GNU Emacs has been the editor of choice for many users for many years. Despite new operating systems, environments and applications, emacs still has a place in the toolbox for both new and old users. I talked to the authors of Learning GNU Emacs, Third Edition: Eric S Raymond, Deb ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=16 Note: This review was originally published in Free Software Magazine Linux in Windows World aims to solve the problems experienced by many system administrators when it comes to using Linux servers (and to a lesser extent clients) within an existing Windows environment. Overall the book is meaty and a quick flick ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=17 Getting the best performance today relies on deploying high performance clusters, rather than single unit supercomputers. But building clusters can be expensive, but using Linux can be both a cheaper alternative and make it easy to develop and deploy software across the cluster. I interview Joseph D Sloan, author of ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=15 OpenLDAP is the directory server of choice if you want a completely free and open source solution to the directory server problem. Tom Jackiewicz is the author of Deploying OpenLDAP, a title that aims to dissolve many of the myths and cover the mechnanics of using OpenLDAP in your organization. ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=14 Postfix is fast becoming a popular alternative to sendmail. Although it can be complex to configure, it's easier to use Postfix with additional filtering applications, for example Spam and virus filters, than with some other mail transfer agents. I spoke to Patrick Koetter and Ralk Hildebrandt about The Book of ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=13 PHP and MySQL are common solutions in many web development situations. However, when using them for e-commerce sites some different techniques should be employed to get the best out of the platforms. I talked to Cristian Darie and Mihai Bucica about their new book which uses an interesting approach to ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=12 Subversion is having what can only be described as a subversive effect on the versioning software environment. CVS has long been the standard amongst programmers, but it has it's faults and Subversion (read Sub-version) addresses those known and perceived about CVS. I talked to Garrett Rooney about his book Practical ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=11 Knoppix is not just another Linux distribution. Unlike many Linux alternatives, Knoppix doesn’t need to be installed; everything runs from a CD (called a ‘Live CD’ distribution). While Live CDs aren’t unique to Knoppix, it is the way the Knoppix CD is packaged that makes the difference. Knoppix includes intelligent ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=10 PHP is a popular web development/deployment platform and you can get even more out of the platform by using the extensions and tools available on the web to extend PHP’s capabilities. I talk to David Sklar, author of Essential PHP, about his new book and PHP development. Why do you ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=7 It is the administration task we love to hate: securing a website. Apache forms the backbone of most websites so it makes sense to start there. In Hardening Apache, Tony Mobily does just that, starting with the basics of creating of a secure Apache installation and moving on to more ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=6 Install Linux and the chances are you’ll be given the choice between a GNOME or KDE desktop. GNOME is the better known of the two, but if you want to development applications that use the GNOME environment where do you start? Well a good place would be Matthias Warkus’ new ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=5 Knoppix is not just another Linux distribution. Unlike many Linux alternatives, Knoppix doesn’t need to be installed; everything runs from a CD (called a ‘Live CD’ distribution). While Live CDs aren’t unique to Knoppix, it is the way the Knoppix CD is packaged that makes the difference. Knoppix includes intelligent ... http://www.writersperspective.com/?p=4